Pencil-sharpener



(No Model.)

B. N. BLACK.

PENGIL SHARPENER.

No. 402,715 Patented May '7, 1889.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFicE.

BENJAMIN N. BLACK, OF PATERSON, NEWV JERSEY.

PENClL-SHARPENER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 402,715, dated May 7, 1889.

Application filed November 6, 1888. Serial No. 290,096. (No model.)

To (tZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN N. BLACK, of Paterson, in the county of Passaic and State of New Jersey, have invented an Improvement in Pencil-Sharpeners, of which the following is a specification.

Machines have heretofore been made for sharpening both lead and slate pencils by a rotary wheel covered with sand-paper; but such machines are cumbersome and expensive, and are not adapted to the use of school children, teachers, and others who frequently require pencil-sharpeners.

In my present improvement there is a rotary cutter or file mounted upon an axle with a wheel having an elastic edge to be run in contact with the table, desk, or the floor, so as to revolve the rotary file rapidly, and the penoil is held by a tubular pulley through which the pencil is introduced, and there is a rubber holding-band that is tightened around the pencil, so as to retain the same in the tubular holder, and a belt from the shaft of the rotary file gives motion to the tubular pencil-holder to revolve the same progressively and to present all parts of the; pencil near the point to the action of the rotary file,- thereby filing such pencil-point to a regular and uniform taper. This whole apparatus is provided with a handle for supporting the parts, and by which the wheel is brought into contact and pressed upon the table or desk as the apparatus is reciprocated duringthe sharpening operation.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of the pencil-sharpener complete. Fig. 2 is a section through the tubular pencil-holder and rotary file at the line 0000. Fig. 3 is an elevation endwise of the rotary file and pencil. Fig. 4 is an elevation, and Fig. 5 an end View, of a modification of the pencil-holder.

The handle A is of a suitable size, and preferably of wood, and at one end thereof there are the jaws 2 and 3. The rotary file B is preferably a tube of steel upon a wooden core, and O is the axis or shaft of the rotary file, and this axis is usually within notched bearings on the under side of the jaws 2 and 3.

D is a wheel upon the axis 0, which-wheel is preferably made with a grooved periphery, into which is received an elastic ring, 4, which can be sprung into place with facility or removed when worn-out. The tubular penoil-holder E is received within the ring-shaped bearing5 upon the jaw 2, and there isashort endless elastic belt, G, passing around the pulley 6 upon the axis 0 and also around the tubular pencil-holder E, there being a collar, 7, to prevent the belt G slipping off the tubular pencil-holder, and this collar 7 rests, when the sharpener is not in use, upon the jaw 3, and there is a guide, H, which is preferably in the form of an open jaw or an elongated eye on the jaw 3, and through this guide the pencil L passes, and it is to be understood that the tubular pencil-holderE is sufficiently large for the passage through it of the largestsize pencil ordinarily used, and toward the outer end of the tubular pencil-holder E is the flange 9, around which is received the hollow clamping-shell M, and there is within this shell M a rubber clamp, N, in the form of a strip wound around within the shell, and one end of the strip is fastened to the inside of the shell M, and the other end of the strip is fastened to the flange 9, so that such rubber clamp is in the form of a short helix, through which the pencil L passes freely when the helix is expanded; but when the shell M is rotated to wind up the rubber clamp N and tighten it around the pencil L the friction created by such clamp is sufficient to hold the pencil within the tubular holder and to cause such pencil to rotate with the holder. When the shell M is not used, the strip of rubber, N, isto be longer, so as to be wound around the pencil, and the free end drawn in behind the hook 12 against the flange 9 to hold the pencil, as seen in Figs. 4 and 5.

It is now to be understood that the handle A can be grasped in the right hand, the shell M having been turned, so as to expand the rubber clamp, the pencil is freely inserted through the tubular pencil-holder and through the guide H until the pencil rests against the surface of the rotary file 13, and the further the pencil is inserted through the holder the more gradual will be the taper formed upon the pencil end, and the belt G, being elastic, causes the pencil to press against the rotary file with the proper force. If, now, the rubber Nis tightened and the sharpeneris moved backward and forward rapidly with the clas tic ring 4 of the wheel D resting upon the desk, table, floor, or other convenient place, the rotary file will be revolved rapidly first one way and then the other, and the tubular pencil-holder Will be simultaneously revolved and the file Will act against the pencil to sharpen the same with the proper tapering or conical point; and this pencil-sharpener is available with either a lead-pencil or a slatepencil, and as soon as the sharpening operation has been performed the clamping-shell M is turned backwardly to liberate the rubber clamp N, or the rubber loosened, and then the shaft 0, and rotary file B, in combination with the tubular pencil-holder and a belt for giving motion to the same from the axis of the rotary file, substantially as set forth.

3. The tubular pencil-holder E, in combination with the clampin '-shell M and clamp N, in the form of a strip, the ends of which are connected, respectively, to the clamping shell and the flange of the tubular pencilholder, substantially as set forth.

4. The combination, with the tubular pen oil-holder, of a clamping-strip adapted to be Wound around the pencil for holding the same, substantially as specified.

Signed by me this 3d dayof November, 1888.

BENJ, N. BLACK.

Witnesses:

GEO. T. PINCKNEY, WILLIAM G. Morr. 

